It is once again time for our annual review of posts that received the most attention on CircleID during the past year. Congratulations to all the 2017 participants for sharing their thoughts and making a difference in the industry. 2017 marked CircleID’s 15th year of operation as a medium dedicated to all critical matters related to the Internet infrastructure and services. We are in the midst of historic times, facing rapid technological developments and there is a lot to look forward to in 2018.

Bsquare, a provider of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions, announced new DataV software integrations with Amazon QuickSight and Microsoft‘s Power BI that allow industrial organisations to quickly create and share powerful new cross-system interactive data visualisations and reports.

Customers can now leverage these popular reporting platforms to take connected device information from within DataV and combine it with other enterprise system data to create new data views that can be critical for business success.

“Data generated from connected equipment is allowing industrial companies to make quicker and more accurate decisions about their business,” said Dave McCarthy, senior director, products at Bsquare.

“The ability to quickly create new visualisations of that information by combining it with other data – and easily sharing the results with others in the organisation – is critical to achieving that goal. DataV currently offers native reporting based on the functionality within our apps. By providing an open standard connection to tools from third party vendors like Amazon and Microsoft, we’re helping customers extend the value they can get out of their IIoT data sets.”

With connected endpoints in businesses poised to grow from 3 billion in 2017 to 7.5 billion by 2020, being able to capture device data and turn it into actionable intelligence is fundamentally changing how industrial organisations operate. From predicting equipment failures to better utilisation of assets, DataV already helps organisations drive powerful business outcomes from connected device data.

These new integrations help extend the functionality of DataV so customers can build even more powerful cross-system visualisations and reports. Teams can create custom visualisations or select from a list of pre-built reports that map to the apps available in DataV.

DataV enables industrial organisations, such as those in manufacturing, transportation, and oil and gas industries to use data generated by connected devices to make smarter operational decisions.

DataV IoT applications and platform help businesses translate insights generated by industrial assets into critical operational improvements, such as better managing devices, increasing production volume, or reducing operating costs. Visualisation tools are a critical component to realising these and other benefits from IIoT.

Amazon QuickSight is a fast, cloud-powered business analytics service that makes it easy to build visualisations, perform ad-hoc analysis, and quickly get business insights from data.

Power BI from Microsoft is a suite of business analytics tools that enable organisations to connect to hundreds of data sources, simplify data prep and drive analysis. Rich, custom visualisations can be viewed from browsers or mobile devices. DataV also integrates with the Tableau visual analytics platform.

To learn more about how DataV is driving powerful business outcomes from IIoT, click here.

The level of industry confidence in Wi-Fi investment is at its highest-ever, according to the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s Annual Industry Report for 2017. As the wireless industry becomes crucial to delivering high quality, high speed, low latency connectivity, the new global study has revealed that over 80% of those surveyed feel as or more confident than they did a year ago. And when looking at unlicensed spectrum more broadly, almost half (47%) feel more confident.

The report, compiled by Maravedis on behalf of the WBA, comes at a significant time for the wireless ecosystem. There is a growing consensus that the success of 5G, unlike previous generations of standards, will rely on the convergence of multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) in unlicensed, shared and licensed spectrum, with Wi-Fi playing the central role.

Developments in the latest Wi-Fi standards, including 802.11ax, will improve Wi-Fi performance and capabilities to support 5G use cases – including high density networks, extreme Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and aggregation of multiple frequencies, amongst others.

“Wireless use cases are expanding rapidly, enabled by new technologies and spectrum in the unlicensed and shared bands”, said Adlane Fellah, senior analyst, Maravedis. “These innovations are laying the foundations for the 5G era, in which Wi-Fi will play a central role.”

As industry attention moves toward monetising Wi-Fi, the study also highlights the drivers of additional traffic over the network, as well as use cases with initial revenue potential in different verticals. In this year’s survey, the services most important to monetisation strategies for 2018 according to respondents included location based services (37.5%), roaming (33%) and marketing analytics (almost 33%).

The three Wi-Fi use cases tipped to drive near term revenue potential include: extending internet access and media to a full smart home, richer and more efficient enterprise services driven by cloud managed networks and security, and expansion of the Wi-Fi roaming model.

The report also highlights the power of Wi-Fi, along with Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies, to provide a rapid and cost effective deployment of various Internet of Things (IoT) applications, including the deployment of smart cities. But interoperability between different technologies, independent certification of devices and equipment and collaboration between different city stakeholders were identified as areas that connected city ecosystems must urgently address.

The WBA’s Connected City Advisory Board produced the second version of its Blueprint in November 2017, which intends to help cities develop their plans to become smart and emphasises the need to bring together the complex value chain of city stakeholders.

Also uncovered in the report is the rising adoption of the WBA’s Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) to support seamless authentication and multi-RAT access. The survey found that NGH had crossed the chasm with 23% of respondents confirming its implementation, and 30% planning to by the end of the year.

“As Wi-Fi continues to evolve, enabled by new technologies, it has the ability to support new connected services and use cases in the 5G era across all segments including, Carriers & Service Providers, Connected Cities and Enterprise & Hospitality ecosystems”, said Shrikant […]

A new report from Navigant Research examines the 5G technology standard and its use cases, focusing on smart grid applications and possible business model opportunities. 5G communications technology is expected to underpin the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where the confluence of ubiquitous mobile broadband, pervasive sensing, and artificial intelligence promises to drive massive change across industry and society.

This coming generation of wireless communications promises to make the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Energy (IoE) a reality, while delivering added benefits for power utilities. According to a new report from @NavigantRSRCH, 5G’s flexible, multi-spectrum, multi-function architecture will provide a platform able to support critical latency-sensitive applications as well as low power, low cost applications such as ubiquitous sensing throughout the distribution grid.

“5G will deliver a step-change in public wireless networking that has the potential to dramatically enhance the way utilities network their grid assets and systems,” says Richelle Elberg, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “Many of the concerns utilities have historically had with public networks should be alleviated, and the opportunity for a truly ubiquitous, future proof network is one that utilities should not overlook as 5G networks come to fruition.”

Richelle Elberg

In addition to enabling smart fleet management as well as edge computing and cloud technologies for distributed automation and intelligent control, 5G networks may also provide new business model opportunities to power utilities, according to the report. Because the technology depends upon dense small cell architecture, opportunities for utilities to partner with carriers could arise, making dispersed assets such as poles, wires, and rights of way valuable assets.

The report, 5G and the Internet of Energy, provides an overview of the 5G technology standard and its use cases. It discusses the many smart grid applications these networks will support and proposes certain business model opportunities it may create. The report also provides a discussion of the global carriers and infrastructure vendors that are leading the charge toward the 5G future.

Utilities—and their vendors—planning network upgrades over the next 5-10 years must fully understand the longer-term implications of the 5G evolution as they consider their need for future-proof and holistic connectivity.

A new report by Juniper Research found that revenues from smart audio devices like the Amazon Echo and Sonos One will grow from an estimated $2.5 billion (€2.11 billion) in 2017 to over $10 billion (€8.42 billion) by 2022, as more audio brands integrate voice assistants into their devices.

With competition heating up in the smart speaker space, the new research, Smart Audio Devices: Strategies & Forecasts 2017-2022, explains that Amazon’s main challengers are currently:

Google
Harman/Kardon
Sonos
Sony
Onkyo

Find out how these and other players will shape the 2018 market in Juniper’s complimentary whitepaper: Which Audio Brand Will Challenge Amazon’s Echo in 2018?

Smart speakers – assistants or audio devices?

The report shows that the smart speaker market is largely divided by sector and brand. Tech companies are building from a digital assistant perspective, while audio vendors see them as a way to make their products more relevant and feature rich. Only Apple is breaking this pattern, with the HomePod positioned as an intelligent audio device rather than a platform for Siri.

These different approaches affect several elements of product design, with a large impact on prices. The research shows how devices costing over $200 (€168.46) will take over 40% of sector revenue while being only 16% of shipments in 2022, as voice assistants proliferate in premium audio.

More holistic integration needed

The research found a window of opportunity exists for tech companies to act before audio players integrate smart capabilities fully into more devices. “Amazon is the current leader in smart speakers because they were first to build a complete smart audio ecosystem” remarked research author James Moar. “Few audio brands currently integrate voice assistants throughout their portfolio, so users wanting smart audio will need work around devices for some years to come.”

The Amazon Echo Dot is the leading device of this type. However, Juniper expects growth for the Dot to slow over the next 5 years as audio brands introduce more smart audio speakers of their own.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

Spirent Communications, the in mobility infrastructure testing, announced that China Mobile has selected Spirent’s Landslide test platform to accelerate validation of mobile core network functions. Landslide will execute key validation tests used by China Mobile to evaluate core network vendors and verify the performance of new core, IMS, and Diameter network functions before they go live. With support for the latest LTE, 5G and IoT standards, Landslide will enable China Mobile to launch new mobile core network functions and next generation services with unprecedented speed and quality.

The Landslide test platform accelerates validation testing by emulating an unmatched, comprehensive set of core network functions, base stations and mobile devices. The platform uses these emulated functions to evaluate the performance and functionality of new network functions in lab environments.

“Spirent Communications is working closely with operators and standards organisations in China to satisfy their specific testing needs,” said Yang Lei, East Asia Sales Development manager for the Lifecycle Service Assurance segment at Spirent Communications.

“This collaboration, combined with our support for the latest 5G and IoT standards, allows us to automate complex validation testing of next generation mobile core network functions. We’re pleased that China Mobile has selected Landslide and look forward to working together to accelerate the launch of high-quality network functions and cutting-edge services.”

Landslide is part of Spirent’s Lifecycle Service Assurance suite for automating testing and assurance workflows across the service lifecycle, including network validation, service testing and operational assurance workflows.

Vodafone UK and Ericsson, in partnership with academics at King’s College London, have successfully tested standalone pre-standard 5G using a prototype device in a central London 3.5 GHz spectrum field trial.

This is claimed to be a first in the UK and the initial step in further collaborative work between the three parties. Until now, no one in the UK has shown pre-standard 5G working independently of existing 4G network technologies.

Vodafone will continue to test 5G technology and evaluate opportunities to provide better services to consumers and businesses prior to its commercial deployment from 2020. The live trials will help to establish the innovative uses of 5G services that will benefit both industry and society in the future – in areas such as factory automation, smart energy grids and remote surgery.

Engineers were able to showcase a number of technologies at King’s College London, including Massive MIMO. The technology, which is already being deployed by Vodafone in its network, is the key building block for 5G. Massive MIMO uses multiple antennae to send and receive data more efficiently to boost capacity where lots of people connect to the network at the same time.

The project is also combining or “aggregating” different bands of mobile spectrums across the UK to increase capacity and boost data speeds. By combining four bands of spectrum, for example, Vodafone enables the latest smartphones to achieve data speeds in excess of 500 megabits per second (Mbps). These fast and ultra-reliable technologies are becoming essential for data-hungry video applications and as the Internet of Things (IoT) expands into people’s homes, vehicles and the workplace.

Vodafone UK head of Networks, Kye Prigg says: “We’re delighted to be the first provider to test standalone 5G in the field, however, building a 5G network will take time. Right now, we’re also modernising our network by making smarter use of our existing mobile technology to keep ahead of consumption demands and provide the mobile coverage our customers deserve.

Marielle Lindgren, head of Ericsson in the UK and Ireland, adds: “Supporting our customers in making 5G a reality is key for us. This is a live trial in a densely populated central London urban area and the first time in the UK that we’ve been able to show pre-standard 5G working independently. We remain committed to advancing 5G development in the UK, working closely with leading operators and ecosystem players to enable global scale and drive the industry in one common direction.”

Commenting on the news, Mischa Dohler, professor of Wireless Communications and director of the Centre for Telecommunications Research at King’s College London, says: “We are immensely proud to support two of the industry’s biggest names in one of the most exciting technology trials of our era. It is the product of years’ long engagement with both Ericsson and Vodafone, and testimony to King’s incredible research and innovation capabilities.

Recently, the global highest generation line, BOE Gen 10.5 TFT-LCD production line, has put into production ahead of schedule in Hefei. It hasn’t been long after the mass production of China’s first BOE Chengdu Gen 6 flexible AMOLED production line, marking another new milestone in the global display industry. Not only does this mean that […]

At this time of year every editor is drowning in predictions for the year ahead. To be honest, I prefer more solid information, says Jeremy Cowan. There is so much enterprise restructuring going on that we’re frantically busy with hard facts in the inter-related worlds of security, billing, car charging, and data management.

Thales CEO goes off ‘merger’ script announcing Gemalto acquisition

The week got off to a bang with Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) and Gemalto (Euronext Amsterdam and Paris: GTO) agreeing to merge.

Patrice Caine, Thales’s chairman and CEO, said: “The acquisition of Gemalto marks a key milestone in the implementation of Thales’s strategy. Together with Gemalto’s management, we have big ambitions based on a shared vision of the digital transformation of our industries and customers. We have a tremendous respect for Gemalto’s technological achievements, and … I welcome warmly Gemalto’s 15,000 employees to our Group. By combining our talents, Thales and Gemalto are creating a global leader in digital security.”

Over the past three years, Thales has significantly increased its focus on digital technologies, investing over €1 billion in connectivity, cybersecurity, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), in particular with the acquisition of Sysgo, Vormetric and Guavus. The integration of Gemalto is expected to accelerate this strategy, reinforcing Thales’s digital offering, across its five vertical markets (aeronautics, space, ground transportation, defence and security). Altogether, this new business unit will represent approximately 20% of Group revenues and rank among the top three players worldwide, with €3.5 billion revenues in the fast growing digital security market.

Combined with Gemalto’s digital security portfolio, Thales will be able to offer an end-to-end solution, to secure the full critical digital decision chains, from data creation in sensors to real-time decision-making. Clients are facing data security challenges in all sectors, including telcos, governments, banks, utilities, and other industries.

Thales will combine its digital businesses into Gemalto, which will continue to operate under its own brand as one of the seven Thales global business units. Philippe Vallée, Gemalto’s erstwhile CEO, will lead the combined digital security business.

The deal is a recommended all-cash offer for all issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Gemalto, for a price of €51.00 per share cum dividend.

It’s not just enterprises that are repositioning themselves, entire countries are refocusing their business models. Norway is well-known as a global leader in renewable energy, having launched an initiative in 2016 to power all cars with renewable energy by 2025.

As part of this process, the country now wants to provide car owners with easy access to charging stations through housing co-operatives. In a new project, Smartly will encourage Norwegians to use of community chargers and move towards electric car usage by 2025.

With help from Capgemini, and its subsidiary Sogeti, Microsoft is now to build Smartly a cloud connected multi-platform mobile app. Using its expertise in cloud-native technology and its commitment to create measurable digital customer experiences, Smartly said it has moved from a proof-of-concept to a working app in […]